(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-13 08:45

OSLO -- Former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their part in galvanizing international action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".

Davis Guggenheim shares his Oscar with former US Vice President Al Gore after winning an award for his documentary feature "An Inconvenient Truth" at the 79th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, in this February 25, 2007 file photo. [Agencies]

The award appeared to be a snub to President George W. Bush, who has doubted the science of global warming and rejected caps on emissions of gases believed to cause it, but the White House said it was happy for the winners and praised their work.

Gore, who lost narrowly to Bush in the 2000 presidential election, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a near record field of 181 candidates.

The Nobel Committee said the award was made because of their efforts to draw attention to mankind's impact on the climate and measures needed to address it before rising temperatures bring droughts, floods and rising seas.

"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee said.

Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth to warn of the dangers and urge action against it.

"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the Nobel committee said. "The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming."

The citation also warned of the increased danger of conflicts if not enough is done to address global warming, blamed by many scientists on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

It was the second Nobel peace prize for a leading US Democrat during the presidency of Republican Bush, who rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol setting limits on industrial nations' greenhouse gas emissions.

The 2002 prize went to former President Jimmy Carter, which the Nobel committee head at the time called a "kick in the legs" to the US administration over preparations to invade Iraq.

But chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said the prize for Gore was not meant as criticism of Bush. "A peace prize is never criticism of anyone, a peace prize is a positive message and support to all fighting for peace in the world," he said.

Gore, 59, said he was deeply honored and would donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization.

"This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis," he said.

IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was overwhelmed.

"I can't believe it, overwhelmed, stunned," Pachauri said in New Delhi.

"I feel privileged sharing it with someone as distinguished as him."

The IPCC groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate change ranging from more heat waves to floods. It was set up in 1988 by the United Nations to help guide governments.

In the run-up to the announcement, speculation that Gore could win the Nobel prize prompted questions about whether it could lead Gore to join the 2008 race for the White House.

Monica Friedlander of the group www.draftgore.com pushing Gore to run said it would "be very difficult for him to say no".

British bookmakers once put 100-to-1 odds on Gore winning an Oscar, becoming a Nobel laureate and becoming president. He has now accomplished two of the three, and on Friday bookies slashed the odds to 8/1 from 10/1.

Agencies